“Here was a writer whose courage was to stay behind and turn his suffering and the suffering of others into extraordinary literature.”―Financial Times
“Has something of the horror of Conrad, the madness of Dostoyersky, and the chilling menace of Capote.”―The New York Times
“A gripping and brilliantly written work.”―Berliner Zeitung
The war is over, yet Dr. Doll, a loner and “moderate pessimist,” lives in constant fear. By night, he is still haunted by nightmarish images of the bombsite in which he is trapped―he, and the rest of Germany. More than anything, he wishes to vanquish the demon of collective guilt, but he is unable to right any wrongs, especially in his position as mayor of a small town in northeast Germany that has been occupied by the Red Army.
Dr. Doll flees this place for Berlin, where he finds escape in a morphine addiction: each dose is a “small death.” He tries to make his way in the chaos of a city torn apart by war, accompanied by his young wife, who shares his addiction. Fighting to save two lives, he tentatively begins to believe in a better future.
Nightmare in Berlin captures the demoralized and desperate atmosphere of post-war Germany in a way that has never been matched or surpassed.
Hans Fallada was the pen name of German author Rudolf Ditzen, whose books were international bestsellers on a par with those of his countrymen Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse.